Japan and the United States signed a pact Tuesday allowing "comprehensive cooperation" on transfers of technologies related to missile-defense systems.

The agreement is expected to ramp up business between Japanese and American defense companies, which are eager to design, produce and sell missile defense systems that can protect against "rogue" countries.

It is considered especially good news for the Japanese defense industry, which had been confined under the previous defense framework to reproducing U.S.-developed products under license and conducting only limited amounts of joint research with the U.S.

Details of the agreement will be specified in a memorandum of understanding to be signed, probably before the end of this week, between Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to agency officials.

Under the MOU, a high-level panel will be set up to handle bilateral coordination, the officials said.

The agreement came after Japan relaxed its decades-old ban on arms exports Friday, allowing it to sell missile defense-related products jointly developed with the U.S. Japan also adopted a new security policy outline the same day in which it pledges stronger cooperation with the U.S. on missile defense.

Under the 1954 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement between Tokyo and Washington, Japan's decisions to provide certain equipment and technology to the U.S. were made on a case-by-case basis, with a pact signed for each transfer.

The only transfer deal involving missile defense under this framework involved key components for the SM-3, a sea-based missile included in a joint study for a missile defense system that began in 1999.

Officials hope the latest pact will accelerate bilateral technological cooperation in other aspects of missile defense.

A Defense Agency official said Tuesday's comprehensive agreement is intended for "smooth procedures" concerning future transfers of defensive missile technologies.

By 2011, Japan plans to deploy a U.S.-designed missile shield that makes use of PAC-3 and SM-3 interceptor missiles. The PAC-3 is a land-based missile.

Japan and the U.S. have been working on developing four components for a next-generation version of the SM-3.

Japan plans to take the project to the next stage -- development and deployment -- soon.

Major defense contractors in Japan and the U.S., including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Lockheed Martin and others, started discussions in 1996 aimed at urging Tokyo and Washington to modify the restrictive framework binding the two defense industries, including a review of export licensing procedures.